ABUJA — World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has recounted the personal price her family paid during her tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, linking the abduction of her mother directly to her refusal to clear $2.4 billion in fraudulent fuel subsidy payouts.
Speaking during an interview with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg’s Leaders program, the former finance minister detailed how target-driven efforts to block illicit financial drains exposed her household to life-threatening attacks.
According to her, trouble escalated after an official audit ordered by her ministry exposed massive inflation of subsidy invoices presented by oil importers. Following her decision to block the suspect $2.4 billion payments, aggressive pressures culminated in the violent abduction of her mother, Professor Kamene Okonjo, from her residence in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State.
“We found about $2.4 billion worth of fraud, so we refused to pay. That then led to threats to me and then, my mother got kidnapped,” Okonjo-Iweala stated.
The WTO chief disclosed that during her mother’s five days in captivity, the abductors communicated explicit conditions aimed at derailing her anti-corruption agenda.
“The kidnappers told me that for her to be released, I should resign and leave the country,” she stated.
Despite the severe emotional strain, Okonjo-Iweala credited her late father, Obi Chukuka Okonjo, for providing the moral courage needed to resist the blackmail.
“My father told me, ‘Do not resign. If you resign, they will kill her anyway, and they will defeat the country.’ His courage gave me the strength to stand firm,” she recalled.
Professor Kamene Okonjo eventually managed to escape her captors on the fifth day.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Okonjo-Iweala stressed that despite the extreme personal costs, standing firm saved the country billions of dollars and paved the way for crucial public finance systems, including the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the automated payroll platform (IPPIS).
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